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The Influence of Catholic Culture Type on the Spiritual Lives of College Students Betsy V Journal of Catholic Education Volume 21 | Issue 2 Article 6 June 2018 The nflueI nce of Catholic Culture Type on the Spiritual Lives of College Students Betsy V. Ackerson [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ce Part of the Higher Education Commons, and the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons Recommended Citation Ackerson, B. V. (2018). The nflueI nce of Catholic Culture Type on the Spiritual Lives of College Students. Journal of Catholic Education, 21 (2). http://dx.doi.org/10.15365/joce.2102062018 This Article is brought to you for free with open access by the School of Education at Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for publication in Journal of Catholic Education by the journal's editorial board and has been published on the web by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information about Digital Commons, please contact [email protected]. To contact the editorial board of Journal of Catholic Education, please email [email protected]. 133 Journal of Catholic Education / June 2018 The Influence of Catholic Culture Type on the Spiritual Lives of College Students Betsy V. Ackerson University of Virgina This article considers the Catholic culture of American Catholic colleges and univer- sities in light of their Catholic mission and purpose—that of fostering and drawing students to a deeper knowledge and understanding of truth and themselves in rela- tion to Truth, who is God. Drawing on Catholic theology, philosophy, magisterial teachings, and scholarship on culture and human development, the study explores the relationship between Catholic culture and students’ spiritual development at Catholic colleges and universities. It applies the Morey-Piderit Catholic culture framework and analyzes survey responses from more than 10,000 college students to identify the relationship between Catholic culture type and spiritual develop- ment of students during college. The findings indicate that the predominant culture type found at the majority of Catholic colleges is proving ineffective in supporting the spiritual development of their students. Keywords Catholic culture, spiritual development, institutional effectiveness, mission aith, ethics, and personal beliefs hold an important and widespread role in the lives of Americans. According to a 2016 Gallup Poll, 74% of Americans identify as Christian and 53% say religion is very important Fin their lives (Newport, 2016). Interestingly, “the most significant trend in Americans’ religiosity in recent decades has been the growing shift away from 1 formal or official religion” (Newport, 2016) . However, the number of Ameri- cans who express “a deep sense of wonder about the universe has risen” (Masci & Lipka, 2016). This trend is mirrored among college students. In 2014, 62% of students reported that their spiritual life is important to them (Volpe, 2014). And, according to the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, “young people are much less likely to affiliate with any religious tradi- 1 In this instance, informal religion is defined as identifying as “no religion,” “athe- ist,” “agnostic,” and “no response.” Journal of Catholic Education, Vol. 21, No. 2, June 2018, 133-156. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International License. doi: 10.15365/joce.2102062018 Influence of Catholic Culture Type 134 tion” (Pond, Smith, & Clement, 2010, p. 3). This includes those who are raised Catholic. Though these young people may not be entirely opposed to religion, “the possibility exists of losing them as members of the Catholic Church if we do not help young adults express their spirituality in the context of religion” (Overstreet, 2010, p. 261). Over the past several decades, college students’ expressed interest in and commitment to religion and spirituality has shifted and assumed a more central part of their worldview (Astin & Astin, 2005). However, until re- cently, higher education “has paid relatively little attention to the students’ ‘inner’ development—the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, moral development, spirituality, and self-understanding” (Chickering, Dalton, & Stamm, 2006, p. vii). There is a clear call from scholars and practitioners in higher education to consider and support the spiritual development of students (Chickering et al., 2006; Love, 2001; Palmer, 1983; Sikula & Sikula, 2005; Strange, 2001). Indeed, Chickering et al. (2006) notes that among many campus leaders, student affairs professionals, faculty and students, there is agreement that “a renewed commitment to recognizing and honoring spiri- tuality in the academy is essential if we are to succeed in providing higher education that integrates intellect and spirit” (Chickering et al., 2006, p. 17). Concurrently over the past several decades, the Catholic Church entered a period of renewed focus on and examination of the mission, purpose and na- ture of Catholic identity within Catholic colleges and universities. Prompted in large part by Pope John Paul II’s 1990 Apostolic Constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae, the mission of Catholic colleges and universities, and what consti- tutes a “Catholic” college continues to be an enduring topic of discussion and debate (see for example Camosy, 2016; Harmon, 2013; Morris-Young, 2012). As Bolduc (2009) states, “American Catholic colleges and universities invest a great deal of energy in attempting to understand and articulate what con- stitutes ‘true Catholic identity’” (p.126). In referencing the second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes), Pope John Paul II (1990) en- couraged Catholic colleges and universities to foster students in their search for truth and for meaning throughout their lives, since ‘the hu- man spirit must be cultivated in such a way that there results a growth in its ability to wonder, to understand, to contemplate, to make person- al judgment, and to develop a religious, moral, and social sense.’(No. 23) 135 Journal of Catholic Education / June 2018 This study considers the Catholic culture of American Catholic col- leges and universities in light of their ultimate mission and purpose—that of fostering and drawing students to a deeper knowledge and understanding of truth and themselves in relation to Truth, who is God. Very little attention has been given to understanding the intersection of an institution’s Catholic identity and culture with student development (Estanek, 2002b; King, 2014; King & Herr, 2015). Research on institutional Catholic identity and student development is limited and much is based on case studies of a small number of individuals or institutions (e.g., Bryant, Choi, & Yasuno, 2003; Cherry, DeBerg, & Porterfield, 2001). By drawing on both secular and Church perspectives, this paper builds upon prior research and further illumines the discourse by identifying the relationship between Catholic identity (as expressed through the Catholic culture) and human de- velopment at Catholic colleges and universities. It also assesses the effective- ness of Catholic cultures in supporting the spiritual growth and development of students attending Catholic colleges and universities. Catholic Identity Catholic identity in higher education has its origin in the purposes of Catholic colleges and universities. Catholic colleges and universities were established to prepare students in both academic and spiritual matters, to be a place where faith and reason come together, and to train future church lead- ers—namely priests. As Garrett explains in his historical account of higher education, “Catholic higher education’s initial purpose was to prepare future clergy” (2006, p. 229). And this purpose endured. Up through the establish- ment of the American university in the late nineteenth century, religious and moral instruction were included within the college curriculum (Stamm, 2006). As colleges and universities evolved during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, “spirit lost ground to science...and religious perspectives began to appear out of place in the secular milieu” (Bryant et al., 2003, p. 723). Initially, these changes affected primarily Protestant institutions, while Catholic insti- tutions lagged behind the national trend. But, what took place in Protestant institutions starting in the 1890s parallels what occurred in Catholic institu- tions in the 1960s (Burtchaell, 1998). Catholic colleges and universities “fend- ed off both Modernism and Americanism until the destabilizing 1960s, when lay autonomy, an embarrassment about scholarly mediocrity, and the drive for recognition by the then secular American academy …abruptly destroyed Influence of Catholic Culture Type 136 the Catholic self-assuredness of an intellectual advantage” (1998, p. ix). In the 1960s, the status of many Catholic colleges and universities began to mimic the earlier pattern of their Protestant counterparts, with regard to emphasiz- ing academics over moral and religious training. The impact of these changes on Catholic institutions’ Catholic identities is still being experienced today. No single factor served as the sole impetus for the transformation of Catholic colleges. Rather, the transformation of Catholic colleges and uni- versities which began in the 1960s has its roots in a series of occurrences. The most influential of these being, (a) social
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